Original bodhi, i. e. 'enlightenment', awareness, knowledge, or wisdom, as contrasted with 始覺 initial knowledge, that is 'enlightenment a priori is contrasted with enlightenment a posteriori'. Suzuki, Awakening of Faith, P. 62. The reference is to universal mind 衆生之心體, which is conceived as pure and intelligent, with 始覺 as active intelligence. It is considered as the Buddha-dharmakāya, or as it might perhaps be termed, the fundamental mind. Nevertheless in action from the first it was influenced by its antithesis 無明 ignorance, the opposite of awareness, or true knowledge. See 起信論 and 仁王經,中. There are two kinds of 本覺, one which is unconditioned, and never sullied by ignorance and delusion, the other which is conditioned and subject to ignorance. In original enlightenment is implied potential enlightenment in each being.

阿濕縛窶抄Aśvaghoṣa, the famous writer, whose patron was the Indo-Scythian king Kaniṣka q. v., was a Brahmin converted to Buddhism; he finally settled at Benares, and became the twelfth patriarch. His name is attached to ten works (v. Hōbōgirin 192, 201, 726, 727, 846, 1643, 1666, 1667, 1669, 1687). The two which have exerted great influence on Buddhism are 佛所行讚經 Buddhacarita-kāvya Sutra, tr. by Dharmarakṣa A. D. 414-421, tr. into English by Beal, S.B.E.; and 大乘起信論 Mahāyāna śraddhotpāda-śāstra, tr. by Paramārtha, A.D．554, and by Śikṣānanda, A. D. 695-700, tr. into English by Teitaro Suzuki 1900, and also by T. Richard, v. 起. He gave to Buddhism the philosophical basis for its Mahāyāna development. There are at least six others who bear this name. Other forms: 馬鳴; 阿濕縛窶抄馬鳴比丘; 馬鳴大士; 馬鳴菩薩, etc.

The six mental 'taints' of the Awakening of Faith 起心論. Though mind-essence is by nature pure and without stain, the condition of 無明 ignorance, or innocence, permits of taint or defilement corresponding to the following six phases: (1) 執相應染 the taint interrelated to attachment, or holding the seeming for the real; it is the state of 執取相 and 名字相 which is cut off in the final pratyeka and śrāvaka stage and the bodhisattva 十住 of faith; (2) 不斷相應染 the taint interrelated to the persisting attraction of the causes of pain and pleasure; it is the 相續相 finally eradicated in the bodhisattva 初地 stage of purity; (3) 分別智相應染 the taint interrelated to the 'particularizing intelligence' which discerns things within and without this world; it is the first 智相, cut off in the bodhisattva 七地 stage of spirituality; (4) 現色不相應染 the non-interrelated or primary taint, i. e. of the 'ignorant' mind as yet hardly discerning subject from object, of accepting an external world; the third 現相 cut of in the bodhisattva 八地 stage of emancipation from the material; (5) 能見心不相應染 the non-interrelated or primary taint of accepting a perceptive mind, the second 轉相, cut of in the bodhisattva 九地 of intuition, or emancipation from mental effort; (6) 根本業不相應染 the non-interrelated or primary taint of accepting the idea of primal action or activity in the absolute; it is the first 業相, and cut of in the 十地 highest bodhisattva stage, entering on Buddhahood. See Suzuki's translation, 80-1; six kinds of defiled mind

The Laṅkāvatāra sūtra, a philosophical discourse attributed to Śākyamuni as delivered on the Laṅka mountain in Ceylon. It may have been composed in the fourth or fifth century A.D.; it "represents a mature phase of speculation and not only criticizes the Sāṅkhya, Pāśupata and other Hindu schools, but is conscious of the growing resemblance of Mahāyānism to Brahmanic philosophy and tries to explain it". Eliot. There have been four translations into Chinese, the first by Dharmarakṣa between 412-433, which no longer exists; the second was by Guṇabhadra in 443, ca11ed 楞伽 阿跋多羅寶經 4 juan; the third by Bodhiruci in 513, called 入楞伽經 10 juan; the fourth by Śikṣānanda in 700-704, called 大乘入楞伽經 7 juan. There are many treatises and commentaries on it, by Faxian and others. See Studies in the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra by Suzuki and his translation of it. This was the sūtra allowed by Bodhidharma, and is the recognized text of the Chan (Zen) School. There are numerous treatises on it.

Śraddhotpada Śāstra; it is one of the earliest remaining Mahāyāna texts and is attributed to Aśvaghoṣa; cf. 馬鳴; two tr. have been made, one by Paramārtha in A. D. 554, another by Śikṣānanda, circa 700; the first text is more generally accepted, as Chih-i, the founder of Tiantai, was Paramārtha's amanuensis, and 法藏 Fazang (643-712) made the standard commentary on it, the 起信論義記, though he had assisted Śikṣānanda in his translation. It gives the fundamental principles of Mahāyāna, and was tr. into English by Teitaro Suzuki (1900), also by T. Richard. There are several commentaries and treatises on it.

Mahāyāna- śraddhotpāda-śāstra, attributed to Aśvaghoṣa 馬鳴 (without sufficient evidence), tr. by Paramārtha A.D. 553 and Śikṣānanda between 695-700; there are nineteen commentaries on it. It is described as the foundation work of the Mahāyāna. Tr. into English by Timothy Richard and more correctly by T. Suzuki as The Awakening of Faith; Awakening of Mahāyāna Faith

When the calligrapher finishes creating your artwork, it is taken to my art mounting workshop in Beijing where a wall scroll is made by hand from a combination of silk, rice paper, and wood.
After we create your wall scroll, it takes at least two weeks for air mail delivery from Beijing to you.

Allow a few weeks for delivery. Rush service speeds it up by a week or two for $10!

When you select your calligraphy, you'll be taken to another page where you can choose various custom options.

The wall scroll that Sandy is holding in this picture is a "large size"single-character wall scroll.We also offer custom wall scrolls in small, medium, and an even-larger jumbo size.

Professional calligraphers are getting to be hard to find these days.Instead of drawing characters by hand, the new generation in China merely type roman letters into their computer keyboards and pick the character that they want from a list that pops up.

There is some fear that true Chinese calligraphy may become a lost art in the coming years. Many art institutes in China are now promoting calligraphy programs in hopes of keeping this unique form
of art alive.

Even with the teachings of a top-ranked calligrapher in China, my calligraphy will never be good enough to sell. I will leave that to the experts.

The same calligrapher who gave me those lessons also
attracted a crowd of thousands and a TV crew as he created characters over
6-feet high. He happens to be ranked as one of the top 100 calligraphers
in all of China. He is also one of very few that would actually attempt
such a feat.

Some people may refer to this entry as Suzuki Kanji, Suzuki Characters, Suzuki in Mandarin Chinese, Suzuki Characters, Suzuki in Chinese Writing, Suzuki in Japanese Writing, Suzuki in Asian Writing, Suzuki Ideograms, Chinese Suzuki symbols, Suzuki Hieroglyphics, Suzuki Glyphs, Suzuki in Chinese Letters, Suzuki Hanzi, Suzuki in Japanese Kanji, Suzuki Pictograms, Suzuki in the Chinese Written-Language, or Suzuki in the Japanese Written-Language.